Exodus 19:8 The people all responded together, We will do everything the Lord has said. So Moses brought their answer back to the Lord.

BEAUTIFUL WORDS AND PROMISES OF SERVITUDE.

These were the words of the people of Israel, reported in Exodus 19:8, in response to Moses, when he announced the conditioning of God's blessings on the people's obedience.

Exodus 19:
3 Then Moses went up to God, and the Lord called to him from the mountain and said, “This is what you are to say to the descendants of Jacob and what you are to tell the people of Israel:
4 You yourselves have seen what I did to Egypt, and how I carried you on eagles wings and brought you to myself.
5 Now if you obey me fully and keep my covenant, then out of all nations you will be my treasured possession. Although the whole earth is mine.

The people responded that they would faithfully obey God:

Exodus 19:8 ...We will do everything the Lord has said...

The people of Israel had already seen and witnessed:

• The 10 plagues of Egypt.
• The Red Sea opens.
• Crossing the Red Sea on dry ground.
• Pharaoh's soldiers are swallowed by the waters of the Red Sea.
• The manna that came down from heaven.
• The quails sent by God.
• The water that came out of the rock.
• The cloud that protected the sun and directed the people.
• The column of fire that illuminated the night and protected from the cold.
• And much more...

Then, the people of Israel arrived at Mount Sinai and they saw Mount Sinai covered with smoke and trembled greatly, because God had descended on it.

In that place they also heard God speak to Moses.

Exodus 19:
18 Mount Sinai was covered with smoke, because the Lord descended on it in fire. The smoke billowed up from it like smoke from a furnace, and the whole mountain trembled violently.
19 As the sound of the trumpet grew louder and louder, Moses spoke and the voice of God answered him.

Moses was then called by God to climb the mountain and stayed there for 40 days, receiving instructions from God and experiencing communion with Him.

While God guided Moses on Mount Sinai, the same people who witnessed the glory of God in Egypt and the desert He asked Aaron, a priest anointed by Moses, to make gods for them, as they thought Moses had died.

Exodus 32:1 When the people saw that Moses was so long in coming down from the mountain, they gathered around Aaron and said, Come, make us gods who will go before us. As for this fellow Moses who brought us up out of Egypt, we don’t know what has happened to him.

Aaron then, in an insane, absurd and revolting way, built a golden calf for the people to worship as their god.

Exodus 32:
3 So all the people took off their earrings and brought them to Aaron.
4 He took what they handed him and made it into an idol cast in the shape of a calf, fashioning it with a tool. Then they said, These are your gods, Israel, who brought you up out of Egypt.

God abhorred such an attitude and threatened to destroy those people:

Exodus 32:10 Now therefore let me alone, that my wrath may burn hot against them and I may consume them, in order that I may make a great nation of you.

Sad and disappointing story, and for those who love God, UNACCEPTABLE, ABSURD AND INCOMPREHENSIBLE ATTITUDES.

But, unfortunately, today Christians have also built their golden calves, believing in all sorts of gods: in the hat, in the soap, in the salt, in the pillowcase, in the pillow, in the horseshoe, in the clover, in the rue, in the flower, in the mesusah, on the tallit, among others.

They are exchanging God for objects or rituals, placing their faith in objects or in men.

They are forgetting that God abhors such attitudes, because IT IS GOD WHO IS THE ALMIGHTY, and all these objects will never be able to accomplish what God can do, quite the contrary, these objects end up generating curses and tying up the blessings that God could give, for God will never give his glory to another.

Isaiah 42:8 I am the Lord; that is my name! I will not yield my glory to another or my praise to idols.

So, open your spiritual eyes and declare from the depths of your heart: EVERYTHING THE LORD HAS SAID I WILL DO.

AND DO IT, for there is where your blessing is.

The Lord bless you and keep you.

Pastor Val Martins